Profile

Lady Gaga is the latest pop icon to grace our screens, while in a relatively short time she has become something of a phenomenon. Here we take a look at her early life plus how she worked her way into the pop music business.

Gaga's Early Life

Lady Gaga or Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, which is her real name, was born on March 28th 1986 in New York USA to parents Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta. Gaga was musical from the start learning to play the piano at the tender age of four, while she was brought up and educated in the Catholic faith at a private Catholic school in New York called The Convent of the Sacred Heart.

Gaga studied music and the performing arts, while she wrote her first ballad for the piano at the age of thirteeen and went on to perform for the first time in a New York nightclub at the very young age of fourteen. Not long after this Gaga joined New York University's Tisch School of Arts. This was an exceptional achievement as being very young she was admitted in advance to the school along with only twenty other students worldwide who achieved this at such a tender age.

Studying music and practicing her writing skills Gaga certainly gained a lot of advantageous experience from the school although she did eventually leave in order to hone her creativity and diversity, attributes she is recognised for now. During this time in order to pay her way and support herself Gaga worked three jobs, one of which was in a club as a gogo dancer.

Professional Career Begins

Gaga took her name from the Queen song title Radio Gaga and began her professional singing career performing in the night clubs of New York. In 2005 she was signed up by Def Jam Records but was soon dropped enabling her to join forces with rock bands doing the circuits. By 2007 she had moved on and was writing music at Interscope Records for other artists such as Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls.

Her interest in fashion was also blossoming with her unique look evolving as time went on. Gaga created her own burlesque show which she named Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue. It was when performing here that she was discovered by Akon, and signed to his label. Akon is a respected R & B singer.

Success at Last

Gaga's debut album The Fame was recorded and released in 2008, while it received critical acclaim setting her on the road to the amazing success that was to come. Just Dance, the first single release from the album reached number one in the charts and was nominated for a Grammy award, while it narrowly missed out on the accolade which went to a single by Daft Punk.

Poker Face was the next release and it too reached dizzy heights worldwide securing the reputation of Gaga as an amazing songwriter and performer. Further successful albums have followed namely The Fame Monster and Born This Way both of which achieved phenomenal successes at home and worldwide sealing the name of Gaga firmly into the Phyche of fans everywhere.

Influences and Achievements

Gaga is said to have been greatly influenced in her early years by artists such as David Bowie, Queen, Madonna and the late great Michael Jackson. It is easy to see how Gaga has progressed using the flamboyance of Bowie, the sexual expression of Madonna plus the great song writing skills that also once graced Michael Jackson.

Gaga is not simply recognised for her song writing and performing skills though she is quite the fashion icon too. She is one of the best selling female artists in the world at the moment selling over twenty four million albums and one hundred and twenty five million singles, which is phenomenal! Gaga has also won five Grammy awards plus thirteen MTV Music awards in what has been quite a short career so far, while she also campaigns for the Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual and Transgender Community.